Singapore schoolgirls defy headscarf ban

A Muslim schoolgirl who defied a Singapore Government ban on the wearing of traditional headscarves has been suspended from school.

The Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, was quoted as saying that schools in multi-ethnic Singapore must remain secular and that Islam only required girls to cover their head at puberty.

The suspended girl is only seven years old.

Up to three other girls are also involved in the confrontation.

Correspondents say the sensitive issue is testing community cohesion in Singapore, where race relations have come to the forefront since the arrests of more than a dozen suspected al-Qaeda linked terrorists in December.

Racial and religious riots wracked Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s.

Since then government policy has focussed on avoiding racial and religious tensions between the ethnic-Chinese majority and the Malay Muslim minority.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service